SOUTHERN DRAW TO LAUNCH NEW PECCADILLOES CIGARS VIA UNIQUE QR SURVEY
JANUARY 13, 2022 –
AUSTIN, TEXAS – Southern Draw Cigars is turning to 10,000 of our most loyal
consumers, valued retail partners and media members, to select our next new
brand.
The idea behind
this effort was to do something relevant in the industry, something that says,
“we hear you, we trust you, and we are open to your opinions;” in this case,
offering new products that are ultimately determined by the end consumers. While social media has been a powerful tool to
reach and communicate with our consumers, the QR code is more intimate and will
allow for confidential and direct feedback, each are key to making such an
important decision.
PECCADILLOES – “Small Sins” – Over the last 10 - 20 years, for one reason or another, many of our favorite thin or “small” ring gauge cigars, specifically 38 – 46/100ths of an inch in diameter, have vanished from the market. Sure, we enjoy the larger cigars; however, we take a step back in time, honoring tradition and applaud the highly skilled hands that deliver our most consistent smoking experiences, refined skills required to produce some classic small sizes. This opportunity is for those that don’t always demand larger and more powerful, we are returning a focus to the quality of the smoking experience over cost or image. Southern Draw Cigars has kept a secret for years. That secret being the existence of a variety of blends, each has been skillfully rolled in small ring gauges, their purest form. Withholding the existence of these for so long as we grew our brand, we have adopted a project name using the Spanish term Peccadilloes, which translates in English to "Small Sins."
"We have spent
years trying to dream up how best to consider the feedback of those outside the
family and partners, not after the fact but rather during the process, going
through prototyping and focus groups, enabling for consumer reviews even before
the commercial release," said Robert Holt. "We decided to accomplish
that we needed to crowdsource our new product development through our QR code
portal and through our popular social media channels to accomplish a couple of
goals:
- Shorten the product development lifecycle and limit the project costs by investing in those that have invested in us
- Develop new brands and cigar products that are pre-validated by our consumers because they were determined by the consumers
- Reveal the blend and origin of tobaccos only after the survey is completed, DO NOT skew the data with preconceived notions
Sharon Holt added, "We have relevant, core products, and we have the channels to sell them, to market them, and to distribute them, but we haven’t previously embraced the ideas of those that actually buy, sell and promote our cigars. If this is to truly be a “family affair” we need to incorporate their great ideas, and that’s why we turned to crowdsourcing."
Southern Draw has
decided to offer the PECCADILLOES, 10,000 of four blend mazos or bundles. each
cigar enclosed is a classic 6"x42 Corona size produced by hand at Tabacalera AJ Fernandez de Nicaragua, SA, located
in the heart of tobacco country in Estelí, Nicaragua. Southern Draw will sell all mazos to
our valued retail partners at our cost, whereas they will be able to offer this
unique opportunity to their consumers at an enticing MSRP of about $20.00. Profit will take a back seat to the
quantifiable value of the consumer feedback.
Final pricing will be set at the release date on February 1, 2022, all
sales to be offered via our team of brokers, reps, and house retail and
distribution accounts. Southern Draw will also distribute PECCADILLOES to each
of the media members and media outlets that share the press release or express
a desire to participate in the survey in the project if the press release
doesn’t fit their own release criteria.
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